strategic visioning for a non-traditional school
strategic visioning for a non-traditional school
Sep 2023 - Dec 2023
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Opportunity
Opportunity
With emerging opportunities and societal need for non-traditional educational offerings from institutions of higher education, both locally and globally, Tufts University's new leadership for University College initiated strategic planning in the Fall of 2023. To aid in the design of and facilitation of the process to engage with and synthesize findings from the community, the TTS Design Practice was engaged. Due to the uniqueness of the educational offerings possible through University College relative to those at Tufts, the number and variety of stakeholders to involve to surface and reimagine administrative challenges was vast.
My Role
My Role
Through my team's involvement in the project, I served as the primary point of contact with University College leadership, designed, developed materials for, and led facilitation of discovery sessions, synthesis sessions, and two retreats for University College staff.
Approach
Approach
Building on a set of 10 existing priorities, the Design Practice developed a unifying strategic framework, centered around three key themes, around which to focus and organize 5 group discovery sessions and interviews with community members.
Opportunities identified from each session or interview were collected and reviewed in synthesis sessions facilitated by the Design Practice to relate each idea to those from other conversations, organized under the strategic framework.
By December, over 100 stakeholders had been engaged in over 40 conversations, yielding over 400 opportunities for University College to consider. These opportunities were sorted into one of 18 action areas and brought to a retreat for University College Staff. In the retreat, staff participated in a gallery walk of the ideas, identifying those which they wanted to personally champion. After, groups were assigned action areas and their supporting ideas to consider in combination for possible initiatives. To close the retreat, groups presented their crafted initiatives for group feedback.
ABOVE: Example MURAL board section with ideas redacted.
Discovery Sessions
Discovery Sessions
In 60-minute virtual sessions with stakeholders, MURAL was used to present to and engage with participants. In an early exercise, the strategic framework was proposed and participants were invited to further detail what might be included in those themes from their perspectives.
Following, the group ideated around the updated themes, clarified responses, identified common threads, and emphasized key ideas.
Impact
Impact
The process was ultimately successful in supporting the coalescing of University College around key strategic ideas, raising the profile and awareness of University College with key stakeholders, both internally and externally, and increased ownership over strategic direction by University College staff.
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